Twitter announced that it will be changing its policy regarding “hacked materials” following a rough 24 hours for the social media giant.
Vijaya Gadde, the global leader for legal, policy, trust, and safety at Twitter, revealed on Thursday night that the platform will no longer remove content that was obtained through a hack unless it’s pushed out by the hackers.
She said that the platform has “decided to make changes to” its Hacked Materials Policy and “how we enforce it” in an effort “to address the concerns that there could be many unintended consequences to journalists, whistleblowers and others in ways that are contrary to Twitter’s purpose of serving the public conversation.”
Gadde said the changes to the policy include “no longer remov[ing] hacked content unless it is directly shared by hackers or those acting in concert with them” and that they will “label Tweets to provide context instead of blocking links from being shared on Twitter.”
The update comes after the platform prevented users from tweeting or direct messaging a link to a New York Post story that alleged Hunter Biden set up a meeting between Joe Biden and a Ukrainian businessman during his father’s time as vice president.
The story, which has yet to be verified elsewhere, would likely show that the elder Biden was not being truthful when he said he never discussed his son’s professional work overseas during his vice presidency. The Biden campaign has denied that an official meeting between him and Vadym Pozharskiy, an adviser to the board of Burisma, ever took place.
Many users who shared the story before the platform prevented it were subsequently locked out of their accounts. The president’s reelection campaign, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and the New York Post itself were locked out of their accounts. McEnany’s account was her personal handle.
The updated policy came a day after the platform’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, described the situation as “unacceptable.”
As backlash mounted against the social media platform, particularly from the Right, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced that it will vote next week on whether to subpoena Dorsey. The White House has long sought to change regulations regarding how they’re viewed legally in response to what they say is censorship of conservative ideas.
